Saturday, September 25, 2010

Rumors out of China point to a new round of downsizing over at Apple, with both a new 7-inch iPad and an 11.6-inch replacement for the aging MacBook Air almost ready for release.

Word from Apple's production facilities in Shenzhen says there are five different baby iPad designs floating around, presumably to keep people guessing, but that the production version is likely to look more like a bigger iPhone 4 than a smaller version of the current iPad.

Details about the hardware are pretty sketchy, but the news is that it will be about 30% lighter than the current iPad. Production is expected to start in December

While its hard to argue with the sales numbers, the iPad's size has always been a bit awkward. It's too big to fit most jacket pockets, resulting in a huge aftermarket for special iPad friendly clothing and cases.

The new MacBook Air is more of surprise, especially when you consider how Steve Jobs dissed netbooks during the iPad launch. While its power and price will likely make it more of an ultraportable than a netbook, it's interesting that Apple still sees a market for a tiny computer with a physical keyboard.

To set it apart from the 13.3-inch MacBook, the new Air is said to have gone on a strict weight control program, with a partial carbon-fiber enclosure to keep the bulk down. Orders placed with primary supplier Quanda suggest that Apple wants to ship 400,000 to 500,000 of the mini Airs before the end of 2010.

We'll keep you updated as we learn more.

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A new Apple patent application shows how the company is developing smart flash systems to deliver better night shots.

The simple LED flash used on most cameras including the iPhone4, simply washes the scene with light that drops off in intensity with distance. The result is those awful looking pictures of groups of friends you see on Facebook, with the people up front all washed out while those who are further away get buried in the murkiness.

Apple's patent describes a multiple LED flash array that can redirect the flash's energy based on an analysis of the objects in the scene. This means it can direct more light towards people further away from the camera, while cutting back of the light hitting anyone who's standing too close.

Professional photographers use carefully directed flash to evenly light their shots, and while no little LED flash can ever compete with a powerful pro rig, this system should help you to put all of your friends in a more flattering light.

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Traffic Crash is the new game developed by Impresiones Web, SL for MiniJuegos, the spanish language leader in casual gaming. Traffic Crash is an universal iPhone/iPad game where the objective is to get the most number of cars through a busy intersection. As you advance from the early stages to more advanced ones the game increases its difficulty with an increase in the number of cars and the speed these cars go at.

Traffic Crash is the third of MiniJuegos's games where their own ranking system is inserted. About it the lead programmer, Alberto Cenalmor, said "users love to compete in a ranking system and see their names online so we can expect to see the API evolve to something else, more social".

Traffic Crash is the fourth game developed by Impresiones Web for MiniJuegos after MiniMemory (iPhone paid), Spiderly (iPhone/iPad lite and paid versions), and Minibikes (iPhone/iPad free ad-supported). You can get Traffic Crash both for iPhone and iPad for free. The game is ad supported as they have tested both sources of income, paid apps and ad-supported ones, and established to be this last one as the better option right now.

Alberto Cenalmor said "At this moment users get as many free apps/games as they can. To pay for something when the competition has it free it's no longer an option for us. We will try to add paid content to the games that prove to be succesfull in downloads"

Pricing and Availability:Traffic Crash 1.0 is free and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.

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Apple has profiled the iPad's use as part of the University of Cincinnati's archaeological excavations at Pompeii.

---In Pompeii - the longest continuously excavated archaeological site in the world - iPad is revolutionizing how scientists work in the field. Rather than recording notes and sketches on paper, researchers at the site use iPad and apps to capture invaluable historical data faster, more easily, and with far better accuracy.

For Dr. Steven Ellis, who directs the University of Cincinnati’s archaeological excavations at Pompeii, perhaps the most significant discovery at the site this year was iPad. Ellis credits the introduction of six iPad devices at Pompeii with helping his team solve one of the most difficult problems of archaeological fieldwork: how to efficiently and accurately record the complex information they encounter in the trenches.

Most archaeological researchers today collect data from their sites as others have for the past 300 years. “It’s all pencil and paper,” says Ellis. “You have to draw things on paper, or in preprinted forms with boxes. That’s a problem because all these pages could be lost on an airplane, they could burn, they could get wet and damaged, or they could be written in unintelligible handwriting. And eventually they have to be digitized or entered into a computer anyway.”---

You can read more, look at photos, and check out the apps they use at the link below...

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg spoke to investors at a Goldman Sachs conference and downplayed the chance of getting the iPhone soon. Instead he focused on the possibility of getting the iPhone for its 4G network.

According to the AP, Seidenberg said he hopes Apple Inc. will come around and allow Verizon to sell the phone for a new network it is building. The new network is not expected to be complete until 2012.

"We don't feel like we have an iPhone deficit. We would love to carry it when we get there, but we have to earn it," Seidenberg said.

"I think 4G will accelerate the process, and any other decisions Apple makes would be fine with us," he added. "Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program."

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My favorite part, "Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program.", this is coming from the person who rejected the iPhone in the first place!?

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Sonos today introduced the Sonos Wireless Dock (WD100), an accessory to their Sonos Multi-Room Music System, that lets you play all of the music from an iPod or iPhone in every room of the house. The Sonos Wireless Dock will be available for $139 Canadian at the end of October.

"The Sonos Wireless Dock is the perfect accessory for our music loving customers who own an iPod or iPhone and want to enjoy the music stored on them in any or every room of the home," said Phil Abram, President, Sonos, Inc. "This new dock reinforces our mission to provide our customers with access to all of the music on the planet, including everything available on an iPod and iPhone in the home."

The Sonos Wireless Dock is compatible with the following devices: iPod touch (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation), iPod classic, iPod nano (3rd, 4th, and 5th generation), iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPhone, and has been certified by the developer to meet Apple performance standards.

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The Apple iPhone has topped the J.D. Power and Associates' customer satisfaction survey for the fourth consecutive year.

Smartphones were measured across several key factors among owners who have used their current mobile phone for less than two years. In order of importance, the key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are: operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%). For smartphones, the key factors are: ease of operation (26%); operating system (24%); physical design (23%); features (19%); and battery function (8%).

For a fourth consecutive time, Apple ranks highest in customer satisfaction among manufacturers of smartphones with a score of 800 on a 1,000-point scale, and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. Motorola (791) and HTC (781) follow Apple in the rankings.

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